Thermal Analysis, Design, and Optimization of Composite Wing Structures Under Electrothermal Heating

This study presents a comprehensive thermal analysis, design, and optimization framework for electrothermal heating systems integrated into composite wing structures. Thermal behavior is first investigated using finite volume simulations conducted with a commercial solver. An in-house thermal solver is then developed based on the governing heat transfer equations and a second-order finite difference discretization scheme. The in-house solver is validated against the commercial solver, showing a maximum deviation of less than 1%. The validated solver is subsequently coupled with a genetic algorithm to perform multi-objective optimization of the electrothermal heating system. A novel correlation for the convection heat transfer coefficient over airfoil surfaces is developed based on extensive turbulent flow simulations and a genetic algorithm. The developed correlation equation has significantly lower percent relative error (from 34% to 6%) compared to flat plate correlations. The developed convection coefficient is incorporated into the optimization process. Key design variables, including heat generation intensity, heater strip dimensions, and the thermal conductivity of composite and surface protection materials, are included in the optimization process. An original objective function is formulated to simultaneously minimize electrical power consumption, prevent ice formation on the external surface, and limit internal temperatures to safe operating ranges for composite materials. The optimized design is evaluated under both spatially varying and constant convection heat transfer coefficients to assess the impact of convection modeling assumptions. The proposed methodology provides a unified and extensible framework for the optimal design of electrothermal ice protection systems and can be readily extended to three-dimensional composite wing configurations.